Testing activity reduces conflict associated strain (ARCAS) model. A test of moderated mediation model of relationship conflict and employee well-being
| Published date | 16 October 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2018-0462 |
| Pages | 125-148 |
| Date | 16 October 2019 |
| Author | Vijay Kuriakose,Sreejesh S.,Heerah Jose,Shelly Jose |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
Testing activity reduces conflict
associated strain (ARCAS) model
A test of moderated mediation model of
relationship conflict and employee well-being
Vijay Kuriakose
School of Management Studies,
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, India
Sreejesh S.
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kozhikode, India
Heerah Jose
School of Management Studies,
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, India, and
Shelly Jose
Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Cochin, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to test the activity reduces conflict associated strain (ARCAS) model
with the aid of AET examining the direct effect of relationship conflict on employee well-being and also
discussing the mechanism through which relationship conflict influences employee well-being, and also to
test the ARCAS model examining whether passive and active conflict management styles influence
this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –Responses were collected from 554 software engineers using structured
questionnaire and postulated relationships were tested using Process Macros.
Findings –The study established that relationship conflicts are detrimental to employee well-being. It also
established the indirect effect of relationship conflict on employee well-being through negative affect state.
Negative affect state is an intra-personal mechanism linking relationship conflict and employee well-being.
The study also extended the ARCAS model by establishing that passive ways of handling conflict amplify
and problem-solving conflict management style mitigates the adverse impact of relationship conflict.
Contrary to the prediction, forcing conflict management style was found to amplify the adverse effect of
relationship conflict on well-being through negative affect state.
Practical implications –The findings of the study highlight the detrimental effect of relationship conflict
on well-being and highlight the vital role of individual affective states in the conflict process. Furthermore, the
study provides valuable insights for managers on how individuals’conflict management styles influence the
effect of relationship conflict on well-being.
Originality/value –The study specifically examined the effect of relationship conflict on employee well-
being and explored the psychological process through which relationship conflict diminishes well-being.
Moreover, the study tested and extended ARCAS model with the aid of Affective Events Theory.
Keywords Quantitative, Conflict management styles, Employee well-being, Relationship conflict,
Negative affect state, ARCAS model
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
It can be undoubtedly stated that research and theory on human resource management
(HRM) have made considerable progress over the last three decades (Guest, 2017). Research
has made considerable advancement in explaining how HRM is linked to performance and
its association with organisational performance. However, researchers in the domain of
HRM do not completely agree that the development hitherto in the HRM is a significant
progress and Kaufman (2012) stated that the development is unsatisfactory and HRM
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 1, 2020
pp. 125-148
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-11-2018-0462
Received 19 November 2018
Revised 2 April 2019
Accepted 19 May 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
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ARCAS model
researchers are still searching for vital answers (Guest, 2011). Research in the HRM domain
has given more attention to performance-related outcomes and failed to address the various
workplace determinants of employee well-being, and the rapid changes in the work and
organisations call for more focus on employee well-being as it influences various individual
level and organisational outcomes (Guest, 2017; Hsieh et al., 2019).
Over the years, research about the determinants of employee well-being has moved
beyond demographic variables and characteristics of the job itself. The predictive power of
age, gender, marital status, health and income has undoubtedly continued to be reaffirmed
in numerous studies. However, increasing attempts have been made to understand the
direct and indirect effects of institutional and cultural contexts, social networks, social
values, personal and societal belief systems on employee well-being measures. Social,
interpersonal and organisational trust, personality traits, socio-cultural norms, life events
and social interactions with family members and professional peers (including workplace
superiors) have grown in prominence as direct determinants of employees’well-being at
work (e.g. Georgellis et al., 2012; Lange, 2015; Pacheco et al., 2016). Similarly, various
individual traits, expectations and inducements, and general psychological contract
perspectives have been found to influence employees’attitudes and behaviours, which, in
turn, have been shown to impact on employees’well-being measures (e.g. De Cuyper and
De Witte, 2006; Irving and Montes, 2009). Hence, the influential role of such social,
psychological and individual level trait variables has been found to feature in the emerging
HRM literature. Hence, responding to emerging trends in the HRM literature, this study tries
to understand the effect of one such social stressor emanating from employees work
environment, i.e. relationship conflict, on employee well-being.
Social interactions are unavoidable to achieve individual and organisational goals
(Hagemeister and Volmer, 2018), and the nature of such social interactions and social
relationships at work plays a vital role in influencing various levels of outcomes such as
employee well-being and work-related behaviours (Botero and Van Dyne, 2009; Ilies et al.,
2011). When employees with diverse values work together, conflicts are unavoidable, and
conflict-free organisations are hard to find (Pondy, 1992). Conflicts are on the rise due to the
diverse nature of the modern workforce, and it is widely recognised that the success of any
organisation to a large extent depends on the smooth functioning of its human resources
(Shaukat et al., 2017). Conflict is not a rarely occurring phenomenon and employees
experience conflict at least 50 per cent of their workdays and managers spend
approximately 25–60 per cent of their productive time dealing with workplace conflict
(Cloke and Goldsmith, 2011; Kohlrieser, 2007). Workplace conflicts adversely influence
individual’s mood (Nixon et al., 2011) and diminish job satisfaction and increase intention to
quit and counterproductive work behaviours (Fox et al., 2001; Frone, 2000; Penney and
Spector, 2005; Spector and Jex, 1998). It results in psychological strain (Dijkstra et al., 2011),
depression (Spector and Jex, 1998), burn out (Richardsen et al., 1992) and somatic complaints
(Frone, 2000). Thus, in general, conflict at the workplace is considered as a major threat to
employee well-being (Sonnentag et al., 2013).
Though there is a two-way classification of interpersonal conflict into task conflict and
relationship conflict, relationship conflict at work got scarce attention in the research front
(Ismail et al., 2012). Solansky et al. (2014) argued that it is vital to decouple task conflict and
relationship conflict to understand the differential effect of both on individual-level
outcomes. Considering this deleterious effect of conflict on employee well-being, to increase
employee well-being and to enhance employees’work-related attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction)
and behaviour (e.g. prosocial behaviour) as well as to enhance performance, more and fully
differentiated research on conflicts at the workplace is needed. It is vital to address the effect
of relationship conflict as it is found more detrimental than task conflict for organisations
and individuals (De Wit et al., 2012). Various research studies have stated that relationship
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